Los Angeles Lakers

Player News - Lakers

Kyle Kuzma said that Lonzo Ball has been hitting the weights hard since the Lakers' season ended.

"Consistency in the weight room, that is the biggest thing," Kuzma said of what he has seen out of Ball this offseason so far. "He has been in there pretty much every day I have been in here around this time. You can tell he is taking the weight room a lot more serious and that is going to help him by allowing him to recover faster and hopefully next year be on the court more because of that weight room." Ball missed 30 games his rookie year, so hopefully, bulking up some will help him stay on the court more during his second NBA season.

Though both Julius Randle and the Lakers have expressed interest in him staying in Los Angeles, Randle's camp is unsure of the mutuality.

"We still have no indication of where Julius stands among the Lakers' priorities," Randle's agent Aaron Mintz said. "Or if he is a priority at all." The Lakers had the opportunity to extend Randle's contract by October 2017 but didn't. He wore a hoodie to a game this season that said "Pay Me" on it, so clearly it rubbed him the wrong way. Randle is a restricted free agent, but the Mavericks are one team that are expected to pursue him. He played all 82 games in 2017-18 and averaged 16.1 points and 8.0 boards per game.

According to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times, no player is "untouchable" on the Lakers roster.

Ganguli adds that the Lakers would prefer to keep their young core together and that they aren't actively shopping anyone. The Lakers have been preserving their cap space for the free agent market in 2018 and 2019 and have been linked to names such as LeBron James, Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins. For what it's worth, Magic Johnson deemed Brandon Ingram as "untouchable" last summer.

While the Lakers "like their young core and would prefer to keep those players growing together, they have told teams no player is untouchable in trades," according to Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times.

The report states that Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle or Josh Hart could all be had for the right price. This isn't shocking, as the Lakers have long been planning to make a major push for LeBron James and/or Paul George this summer. If it takes moving one of their young studs to make that happen, the Lakers won't hesitate.

Thomas elected to undergo surgery to repair his hip back in March, a decision that he probably should have made during last year's playoffs, but he should be 100% healthy by the time training camp comes around. It's unclear exactly where Thomas will play next year, but there's no way anyone will be giving him the max after a disastrous 2017-18 season.

Andrew Bogut, who signed a two-year deal with the Sydney Kings of Australia's NBL, confirmed he is retiring from the NBA.

Bogut's contract with the Kings does not include any NBA or European outs. The 33-year old Bogut said that family was a major factor in his decision. "I’ve been through a lot but so has my wife," said Bogut. "I saw how hard it was, essentially living out of a suitcase the last year or two, with Dallas and going to Cleveland. I don’t think it’s fair to my son. Kids take a while to adjust. "

Brook Lopez admitted that this season was the "most challenging" of his career.

"Being thrown into a new situation, there were a lot of variables, and this was a team trying to find its identity," he said. "We had a lot of new players and it took some time to gel. I don’t think I really reached my best basketball this season. I played well for a stretch or two but I still think my best basketball is ahead of me." Lopez added that he needs to find a better balance between his 3-point game and low-post game, something that became increasingly obvious as the Lakers season progressed. The big man had previously said he'd be open to re-signing with the Lakers in the right situation, but there are too many variables in play to meaningfully read into those comments at this time.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said that he thought his season with the Lakers was "the best season" of his NBA career.

Caldwell-Pope posted career-best marks in field goal percentage (42.6%), three-point field goal percentage (38.3%), three-point field goals (2.1) rebounds (5.2), and tied his career-high mark in steals (1.4), but he took a slight step back in scoring (13.4), assists (2.2), and free throw percentage (78.9%). It's anyone's guess where KCP winds up given the Lakers uncertain summer ahead, and it may again be a difficult free agent market for Caldwell-Pope to navigate in the search of a multi-year deal. A reunion with the Lakers isn't completely out of the question, though we're a long way from that potential scenario playing out.

Magic Johnson said that Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma will not play in the Las Vegas Summer League.

This is disappointing news for fans of Summer League action, as we won't get to watch two of 2017-18's exciting rookies this July. It's also somewhat surprising considering that Ball said he would play if asked, and that he could use plenty of reps to improve his shooting. Lonzo did say that he didn't plan on making any changes to his jumper during the offseason.

If the Lakers want him to, Lonzo Ball said he'll play in summer league.

Ball also said he's not planning to change his shot and he'll continue to get reps up. He added he'll try to get stronger and work on scoring as a whole. After a stat-stuffing month before he got hurt, Ball could become a top-30 pick in standard leagues.

Brook Lopez said he's open to taking a reduced salary with the Lakers next year if he felt the Lakers were in position to win a title.

Being open to something doesn't really mean much coming from a pro like Lopez. Reading between the lines here, Lopez could be looking to make a title run with a team like the Warriors -- they haven't announced a starting center for Game 1 yet. He'll be a name to watch and should have value in fantasy with 26-30 minutes per game.

"It’d be amazing to be here, and hopefully both sides can come to something," Randle said. It was a tale of two seasons for Randle. In the last 12 days of December, he was benched to play under 12 minutes in two games. However, he really picked it up in 2018. Randle is a bit of a mystery because the Lakers may have high hopes this summer.

Josh Hart scored a career-high 30 points during a 115-100 win over the Clippers on Wednesday, adding five rebounds, five assists, one steal and seven 3-pointers.

Those seven 3-pointers were a career high. Hart certainly showed he's capable of being a rotation player as a plus-rebounding guard who can handle the ball on the wing. Obviously the Lakers are going to have a much different roster in September, so it'll be tough to gauge what kind of role he has. If you started him in the last week of the fantasy playoffs, it paid off for you with four straight 20-point games.

Gary Payton II scored a career-high 25 points with 12 rebounds, one assist, two steals and three 3-pointers in 30 minutes against the Clippers on Wednesday.

He only scored 14 points in his previous games with the Lakers and only 30 points with his time with the Bucks this season. Payton II hasn't really been given much of a chance because he's held teams back on offense.